by Penny Grubb
She’d broken a cardinal rule – never let the client into your personal space – but told herself it didn’t matter because she was moving on. And she had her own reasons to quiz Nicole. Charlotte had been practical and grounded as she’d explained their business venture to Annie. It would be a partnership between equals and it would work. Now, Annie wanted to hear it from Nicole’s side because Nicole was the one whose situation was closest to her own.
When she reached home, Annie rushed about, pulling cushions off the sofa and dragging out the accumulated bits and pieces from underneath. She raised a cloud of dust that stung her eyes and caught in her throat before rushing upstairs to an elderly neighbour who had helped out before with household appliances.
‘My vacuum’s broken again, would you mind?’
He chuckled. ‘You mean the bag’s full and you’ve forgotten how to change it. Use mine tonight, but you bring it round at the weekend and I’ll sort it for you.’
‘Deal.’ She smiled and hurried back.
The noise filled the small space and the machine left a track across the thin carpet that changed its colour. Annie raced it over the floor, pushing chairs out of the way to get into the corners, gritting her teeth at every metallic clank that signalled something other than dust sucked into the innards of the machine, but it was robust and kept running. She wrestled free the tube and ran it over the sofa, the cushions, the table top. Every surface she cleaned highlighted another thick with grime.
She was on hands and knees reaching under the cupboard unit when she spotted the time and clicked the vacuum off. Standing up, she brushed down her trousers and went to detach the cord from the wall. Now she noticed them, lines of dust thrust themselves forward from every angle, but the air was fresher and the space shone in a way it hadn’t for weeks.
Nicole was far from relaxed when she arrived. ‘Tell me if you’ve found anything. I’d rather know the truth.’
‘No, really, it’s nothing like that. It’s just that if I don’t get to the bottom of it before the court reconvenes, certain doors are going to close.’
‘Official sources who won’t talk to you once the madman’s put away, you mean?’
‘Something like that. The thing is, Nicole, I need to look at all the angles, all the possible motives for anyone involved in wanting to blacken Michael’s name. This business you, he and Charlotte were about to set up. I want to know more about it.’
‘But what could that possibly have to do with his murder?’
‘I’ve no idea, but business interests are a classic motive for getting someone out of the way.’
‘That madman wasn’t interested in the business.’
‘But suppose someone else was. Suppose they wound up Yates with their allegations. It could be a perfect crime. Yates insane enough to believe in what he was doing and tied into saying nothing to bring anyone else into the frame by whatever tale he was fed.’
Nicole looked startled, digesting this new angle. And well she might, thought Annie, who had constructed the theory as a viable way to ask the questions she wanted, without seriously considering it as a motive for murder. Now, hearing herself tell it for the first time, she experienced a moment’s doubt. It put a different complexion on the stories she’d heard from several people, Nicole herself being one of them.
Nicole, however, was reassuringly willing to talk about the details of the business and its proposed finances. Annie listened intently.
‘So Charlotte would have a far bigger financial stake than you. Would that have been a problem?’
‘Oh, no. If we go ahead, we’ll be equal partners. It’s Michael who would have had the greater share.’
‘He’d have been the senior partner then? Wouldn’t that have made you feel at a disadvantage? Michael and Charlotte between them would have had control.’
‘No, it wouldn’t have worked like that. It would have been a partnership of equals, but Michael would have had the biggest financial stake. And he had such ideas…’ Nicole’s voice thickened as her words faded away.
Charlotte hadn’t thought much of Michael’s ideas, but Annie wasn’t about to say so.
‘The damage people cause!’ Nicole burst out. ‘And they’ve no idea.’
‘That’s vigilantes,’ Annie murmured. ‘No due process. Where will you get the money to cover Michael’s share?’
‘Charlotte can raise it on the house once things are sorted out.’
‘Won’t that leave you the minority partner?’
‘I’m raising more too. From family.’
‘That’s lucky,’ said Annie, trying to keep the acid out of her voice. ‘Having family with funds to spare.’
‘It’s not that.’ Nicole laughed. ‘Far from it. None of them has a bean. But they have assets and they’re willing to lend me the money they can borrow. I’ve convinced them it’s a good investment.’
‘That’s quite a risk for them.’
‘Oh yes, if we go under, we’ll take them all down with us. But it’s not going to happen, not even now we’ve lost Michael.’
‘Explain to me exactly how it’ll work.’
Later that night, Annie sat mulling over what Nicole had said. Even after all that had happened, Nicole was ready to make the leap. What reason could Annie possibly have for any doubts on her own account? For the sake of tying loose ends, and for no other reason, she would wrap up this case. And then she was off. It didn’t matter what she was going to: what mattered was what she was getting away from.
Chapter 12
Morning sun over the estuary speared its light across the city making Annie shade her eyes against its brightness. Stepping into the office was like entering a dark cave.
She was first in today, because Pat was to head straight to Donna Lambit’s. The empty rooms echoed the insistent beep from the phone signalling a new message. As she pushed the door open, footsteps hurried from one of the downstairs offices and a voice called out, ‘Is that you, Annie? Can you come down? I’ve coffee brewing.’
She smiled. The guy downstairs had taken to buying really good coffee once he found she liked it. There wasn’t much interaction between the floors, but they’d fallen into an easy relationship, something else she would miss.
‘We’ve had reports, Annie,’ he told her as he poured the coffee. ‘People have been seen in the building at nights.’
Annie felt the blood rush to her face and ducked her head. Please God, don’t let anyone have seen her creeping half-naked down the stairs, followed by an equally dishevelled Scott. ‘Uh … when? Who’s seen people?’
‘The woman across the road. You know they sometimes work round the clock over there.’
Annie didn’t, but she nodded.
‘She happened to mention it. People in and out of the door. Well, one person anyway … in the small hours. I just want to be sure it’s legitimate key-holders. From the description, it might have been one of your colleagues. A.. uh … larger lady.’
‘Ah, right. It’s Barbara. She drops stuff off at odd times.’
‘On a regular basis? In the small hours? You’re sure?’
‘Yes, I know she pops in out of hours, but I’ll mention it. Do you have dates?’
Annie smiled. She looked forward to dropping this into the conversation in front of both sisters.
Half an hour, more gossip and two coffees later, she climbed the stairs, and was met again by the beep-beep of the waiting message. With the speaker-phone on, she pressed the button to retrieve it, whilst opening email on the nearest of the PCs.
‘This is for Ms Raymond,’ a voice rapped out. Annie’s eyes snapped wide in surprise. Donna Lambit. ‘I’ve had time to think. I’m prepared to talk to you. But on my terms, not yours.’
Donna’s voice rattled out her conditions. She would listen to questions, but there must be no pressure on her to answer; no threats; no police; no contact with Joshua Yates; any funny business and that would be it.
Annie immediately called Pat to let her know t
here was no need for heavy tactics now.
‘I’ll go back this morning,’ she told her boss. ‘No time like the present. And I’ll let you know if she’s on the level.’
As she arrived within sight of the neat house she’d been thrown out of the day before, Annie’s curiosity welled up. What did Donna know? How much would she tell?
This time Annie felt she had the upper hand, arriving as invited guest, and Donna showed no surprise at seeing her on the doorstep.
‘Come through.’ She held the door wide and waved her hand towards the small living room.
She pointed at a chair. Annie sat.
‘I was overwrought the other day … worried for my daughter. For her sake, I’ll co-operate.’
Annie recognized a prepared opening speech, badly executed.
‘But before I listen to your questions, I’ve some of my own.’
‘Go ahead.’
‘What do you know about Michael Walker?’ Donna betrayed her nervousness by obsessively picking at her nails.
‘Over and above what anyone could have read in the papers, very little. He and your daughter planned to set up as business partners. That’s about it.’
‘And you’re out to prove he didn’t do any of the things he was accused of?’
‘No, that’s not my brief.’ Annie chose her words with care. ‘I’m after the truth.’
‘And what if the truth shows he was guilty of all those things?’
Annie looked her in the eye. ‘Then so be it.’
‘And you’d tell my daughter?’
‘No, she’s not the one employing me. But she’ll get to know, I’m sure.’
‘Who is employing you?’
‘I’m not allowed to say. Client confidentiality.’
Donna stared hard at her for a moment. Annie read the message, don’t think I trust you yet, but Donna sat back a little, so Annie mirrored the move by sitting forward, and said, ‘Tell me about May Gow.’
Donna’s lips pursed, ‘I slaved for that cow and she left me nothing.’
Both the words and the tone surprised Annie. Charlotte had implied that her mother and May were not close.
‘Why would she leave anything to you?’ She watched closely trying to catch a glimpse of the real story.
‘Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying I had any rights over Susan, but there was some stuff she promised me.’
‘What stuff?’
‘It doesn’t matter. It has no bearing on this.’
‘But what was it?’
‘I said it doesn’t matter.’
‘OK. Who’s Susan?’
‘May’s daughter, but you’ll get nothing from her. She kept herself well out of the way until the time came to pick over her mother’s things.’
‘Does she live locally?’
‘I haven’t a clue. I only spoke to her a couple of times.’
Scraps of information. Annie tried to build them in her mind, to work out which direction to go. May Gow promised something to Donna, but didn’t deliver. No love lost between Donna and May Gow’s daughter. Despite her previous decision that it was unlikely to be worthwhile tracing May Gow’s family, Annie knew she would have to trace Susan.
‘What’s Susan’s surname?’
‘Gow. Same as her mother.’
‘Never married?’
Donna shrugged a don’t know.
‘What did May Gow tell you about Michael?’
‘Nothing.’
‘I thought she talked to you before you put in the complaint.’
‘No.’
The bald negatives nonplussed Annie. ‘So what did you find out about Michael Walker, and where from?’
‘You know what I found out. You know what he did. It all came out in court.’
Annie bit back the obvious comment, that the court had discounted everything Yates had said, and asked again, ‘Who told you?’
‘I know you’ve spoken to Charlotte. You needn’t try to hide it. She tries to believe anything that’ll make that man look innocent, but I can assure you, May Gow told me nothing at all about Michael Walker.’
‘Then who was it?’
‘No one,’ said Donna, her voice rising a little. ‘No one told me. But it’s all true.’
Annie looked across at her, knowing she’d had all that Donna would give her for now, but wanting to leave the way open once she’d worked it out. ‘Do you want to know what I find out about Michael Walker?’
Donna’s gaze snapped up to meet hers. ‘Would you be allowed to tell me?’
‘If I choose to, yes.’
‘Then yes, I would.’
‘And if I have more questions, you’ll answer them?’
Seeing Donna frame an instinctive refusal, Annie added quickly, ‘Not now … maybe later on.’
Donna hesitated, then nodded.
Annie stood up, wanting to be the one to end the visit this time, to be in control. She looked into the woman’s eyes which were hard as flint, staring back, radiating hostility, but deep down showing something else, something that Annie couldn’t read.
That afternoon, Nicole arrived at the office twenty minutes early and apologetic.
‘Sorry, I wasn’t sure how long it would take me to walk up here. I thought better early than late. I can just sit and wait till you’re ready for me.’
Annie smiled and pushed forward one of the office chairs, wondering if Nicole had expected a comfortable waiting room with low tables and magazines.
‘I’ll wait for Pat before I debrief you. She’s the boss. She wants to hear how things are going.’
They chatted desultorily and Annie eased the conversation again towards Nicole and the details of how she raised finance from a family who had no money. If Nicole thought the questions intrusive, she didn’t show it, and spoke openly. Annie was intrigued by the diligence Nicole and her family had put into exploring their options. The solution they’d settled on wasn’t something Annie could duplicate, but she saw avenues open up that she had never properly considered. She was weighing the pros and cons when familiar sounds reached her. Pat’s grunts and laboured breathing matched the thudding of her footfalls as she hauled herself up the stairs. That’s the difference, Annie realized: Barbara doesn’t grunt and groan on her way up.
Once Pat was settled and introductions made, Annie outlined where she’d got to. She could tell from Nicole’s pursed lips that Donna’s role in the six-year-old complaint wasn’t news. Charlotte must have broken it to her.
‘What’s next?’ Pat prompted, when Annie had finished her account.
‘There was nothing in the complaint itself,’ Annie said, with more confidence than she felt, ‘or something would have come to light at the time. So I want to get to the bottom of what Donna said and where she heard it from. If I can nail that and discredit it, then that takes the rug from under the stories that are going about.’
‘You haven’t forgotten,’ Nicole said, ‘that we can’t pay for much more of your time?’
‘No, I hadn’t forgotten, but we’re all right at the moment. And there is something you and Charlotte could help with. Can you get anything out of Donna? I know she and Charlotte haven’t spoken for a while, but she could probably get the gen from her far quicker than I can.’
‘I’d like to kill that cow!’
‘That won’t help,’ Pat said. ‘Annie’s right. If you could persuade Charlotte to dig out the detail, you could save us some time and yourselves some money. It might be the difference between getting the job done or not.’
Annie looked at Nicole. Her outburst against Donna was still visible in the tension in her jaw. If Nicole chased her instincts, she would wreck the chances of anyone finding the truth.
‘Your job,’ Annie told her, ‘is to persuade Charlotte to go and talk to her mother, to find out who told her what before she reported Michael. There’s no point in you trying to force it out of her. She’ll just clam up.’
Nicole nodded.
A discordant j
angle of both door buzzers pressed simultaneously cut through their conversation. It was followed by the murmur of voices, then the tramp of footsteps up the stairs. Annie and Pat exchanged a glance. It was unusual for the guy downstairs to let someone up without announcing them. Annie got to her feet, stepped across to the door and swung it open.
Three faces were in her line of sight as she looked down. The guy from the office looked worriedly at the two people on their way up. Annie felt a sudden shock to see Scott and Kate on the stairs. Scott, face grim, did not look at her. Kate stared with cold hatred, and marched in as Annie retreated from her advance.
‘Pat Thompson? Ann Raymond?’ Kate rapped out.
Annie, aware of Nicole’s gaping mouth, thought for a surreal moment that she and Pat were about to be arrested.
Pat looked Kate up and down coldly and said, ‘Ah, PC Ronsen. To what do we owe the pleasure?’
‘DC,’ Kate snapped. ‘We have intelligence that someone we’re interested in has made contact with a local PI. It’s probably a man, and he’s from outside the area. We need to know if it’s you he’s contacted.’
‘As you can see,’ Pat said, in measured tones. ‘We’re with a client at the moment. Perhaps you’d like to wait and speak to us privately.’
Kate matched the ghost of a nod to a slight curl of her lip and planted herself firmly where she stood, making clear that if she was to wait, it would be right here in the middle of them all. Annie looked at Scott whose face was blank. He knew this wasn’t the way to get co-operation from her and Pat.
‘And you know you’ll have to give me more than that,’ Pat said. ‘Assuming you’re looking for co-operation.’
‘Oh, you’ll co-operate, all right.’
‘Are you suggesting we’ve not been co-operative in the past?’
‘Of course not,’ Scott broke in. ‘We know you’ll help us if you can.’
Annie eased back. This was one for Pat to deal with. She shot a look at Nicole, who stared from Kate to Pat and back again, clearly excited to be in the middle of this drama.
